It was interesting to play the Annex in October this year, because it was two years ago that Steve and I showed up to "jam" with John and Michael with drummer Mike Cline at the Annex. And what a great two years it's been. Practically every Friday and Saturday night have been filled with gigs.
And, now as we near the end of 2011, it's coming to an end.
After our New Year's Eve gig, Steve and I will no longer be with Crystal Image. We are truly looking forward to each and every gig that we have left this year (and we have some really fun ones).
John, Michael and Jerry will continue on as Crystal Image and we (Steve and I) wish them nothing but the best.
What does the future hold for us (Stephanie and Steve)? At this time, we don't have any plans musically, but we are open to whatever the next chapter may be.
We have a lot of private parties in the coming months and a couple of public shows, so please come out and help us celebrate the final chapter of a great collaboration.
We still have a bunch of really fun and happy memories to create.
This was our last outdoor gig of the season. And, it was a truly magical night.
We got there very early so we could be set up before the guests arrived. The couple was so nice to have rented a stage for us and we truly appreciated that. They also had a dance floor. Both of these are hard to install in a meadow with uneven ground, but the both worked out great.
The ceremony was next to a pond and the bride asked Michael to play some acoustic music before the ceremony. He is perfect for this. If you haven't heard Michael sing James Taylor....oh wow...it's beautiful. He was so thoughtful that his entire set told a love story and culminated in a song "And I Love Her" as the bride walked the aisle. I get a little teary just remembering how pretty it all was. I took a quick video clip of Michael singing and playing on my Iphone:
He did a great job, and I wish I had videotaped more of it.
The wedding was held at a private residence and the guests arrived by bus, so there was a minimal of cars on the property. We could hear and see a lot of different animals just across the fence.
The couple got married by the pond and had the reception across the road. It was a beautiful setting for a wedding. Brittny was a stunning bride.
The are such a sweet couple
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I have to say that Michael had superb timing. He knew just what to play and when. The bride trusted him to play what he thought was best and it just couldn't have been better in my opinion.
Pretty girls!
Doesn't she look so happy!
The first dance.
When the father daughter dance started, I looked over at the mother of the bride and she was crying so much that it reminded me of my own daughter's wedding. Someone came up after and asked if I was related to the family. I told him that I wasn't but that I am a "Mom" and I couldn't help feeling the emotion.
Here they are dancing to "My Little Girl" by Tim Mc Graw, played on my ipod.
The mother son dance. Such a special moment.
I just can't say enough about how pretty it was. The tables were draped in black and white with red roses and candleabras. It was very elegant.
The twinkle lights were strung all around the reception and as it got dark, it was so festive. They did not have electricity out in this area, so they had generators for the lighting and the band. We were a little stressed about running our equipment on the generators. The alternative was to run a long extension cord across the road to the pump house. The groom came over and let us know that the generators could barely handle the lights and he recommended the extension cord, which is what we did.
As the night came upon us the folks started dancing. My favorite thing!!
One really nice guy came up and asked us to play Tennessee Waltz. It's one of my favorites and we did it for him. He said that it was playing the night he proposed to his own bride and he wants us to play for their anniversary for 35 years. Special.
We always bring our own lighting. My invention! We put our lights up high on our speakers with velcro. One white and one red. It's perfect.
A lady asked us to play some Greek music. What? We don't know any Greek music. After a little discussion, Michael figured out that Reggae would do and we played "I Shot the Sheriff" while they did a Greek dance.
About halfway through the show, our music started to sound crackly. Someone came up and told us that we blew a speaker. That was freaky because one of the speakers is brand new and the other is nearly new! We tested it all out a few days later and we couldn't find anything wrong with it. We determined that it was probably the long extension cord going across the road and plugged in with the pump. Anything else plugged in can affect the power going to us.
Towards the end of the night the buses came and picked up the folks and all that was left was the Bride, Groom and some friends. We played one hard rock song after another and as they danced the dancefloor which was set on uneven ground started to come apart. It struck me that they really did "tear up the dance floor!".
Packing up in the dark is always difficult. We save our lights for last so they can help us see. All of our stuff is black, so it would be very easy to miss something. We pulled our cars up to help us see.
It was a wonderful time. I will miss the outdoor gigs.
The Annex is located in Sutter Creek in an Historic Building. The main building is the American Exchange Hotel and the Annex is located in the downstairs area.
Just two years ago, Steve and I visited John and Michael at their gig at the Annex. They were playing with drummer Mike Cline. We were both students of John, he invited us to come to their show. I just came to watch and Steve was going to play his harmonica on a couple of songs. Little did we know that we would participate in the entire gig. I don't even remember how that happened. But, it was a LOT of fun.
Looking back on that day, I did NOT have any inkling that we would have been on the journey that the past two years has been. So, it was really fun to be back there again with our band, complete with drummer Jerry! We had a BLAST!
What a fun night. This is my daughter singing along with us.
These gals were in town to celebrate a birthday, they were so much fun.
Catherine and Tim, a wonderful couple. Catherine is none other than the popular novelist Catherine Burr!
New friends from the Napa area.
Family! My son in law on the left, my youngest son in the middle and my dear daughter. They were so sweet to show up and it was a complete surprise!
There was some serious dancing going on!
My guys!
We were celebrating Susan's birthday too!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! Here she is with Terry. My two favorite DANCERS!!
Susan said I had a TWIN in the room and I looked all over for someone who looked like me. She meant my daughter of course! I call her "mini me"....hope she doesn't mind! We are so alike.
This place has a very cozy atmosphere with original brick walls. They have pool tables and a dance floor. We'll be back on November 19th...join in on the fun!!
This was a return engagement for us. Last time we played with four of us without a drummer. Michael was out of town so we played with four of us again, this time it was John, Jerry Steve and myself.
For this group we play our Dinner Dance/Ballroom music. And they DO love to dance!
This is Mary and she loves to sing. She knew every word!!
We love this crowd. They are so nice and appreciative.
This is us with the ladies who organized the party. They were so nice. They even fed us! It was a delicious meal. They were celebrating their 10 year anniversary and had some yummy cupcakes! Mmmmmmm. I LOVE cake!
We were hired to play for a wedding in Elk Grove at a "Barn". We had an address and we all ended up getting lost. We went around and around. Eventually we figured out that it was right in front of us, we just didn't see it. It was a huge barn that the couple had decorated, it was great.
I did not know the people personally, all I knew was that the bride was from Pennsylvania. When we were setting up, my friend, Talia came up to me (big surprise!) and told me THIS was her Brother's wedding! I was so shocked. I told her that this could NOT be a coincidence. She told me that she did tell him about us. How fun!!
I thought that everyone was soooo laid back, for a wedding that is. As it turns out, the couple had a wedding back east and this party was for the west coast (groom's) family. Many of the east coast folks came all the way for this party. Here is the happy couple:
The toasts were wonderful, here is the father of the bride:
I love the look on their faces. It was a really sweet speech.
Here is the father of the groom, his speech was also very touching. The mother of the groom in on his left. I really loved that when the "Mother/Son" song came, she invited all mothers and sons to join them. It was so sweet to see mothers and sons of all ages dancing together.
A toast!
Father daughter dance. The bride is from a very large family and she had several sisters at the party. They are all beautiful!
This family was so fun and happy. We started out playing some soft dinner music.
It is a family tradition for this guy to sing "Margaritaville". The band played it for him and he was really good!!
After a while, they were ready to ROCK and we played our entire last set of Rock n Roll. The dancing was off the hook!
I took a lot of video and I'll share it here when I get it edited.
